Chapter 1

A man collapsed into a pool of blood right before their eyes.

It was the leader of their party, the Hero.

The Hero got killed.

He was the most promising hero in the Nord Kingdom, which laid to the northeast of the continent. The boastful martial artists, the arrogant black mages and the kindhearted white mages all had collapsed, covered in wounds.

The floor of the grandiose reception hall was illuminated by the eerie flicker of the torchlights. In this room, filled with the thick scent of blood, the summoner Lion was the only one left standing.

Lion1 hadn’t really sustained any injuries. However, that was only because, during the battle, a time when he was really useless, he had hidden himself in the shadows.

In an even pattern from the entrance towards the depths of the room, the Hero’s blood was silently soaking into the red velvet rug. Inside the reception hall, the shadow elegantly sitting on a luxurious chair that could certainly be called a throne, shivered slightly.

With just that slight movement, it felt like the air inside the room grew several times thicker.

This shadow was the Northern Demon King.

Aided just by the light of several torches, Lion couldn’t make out neither his face nor his body from where he stood. He felt overpowered by his presence alone, like a gleaming sword pressed to the nape of his neck.

The up-and-coming Hero, the leader of their party, had reached the throne of the Northern Demon King’s castle, which was said to be impenetrable. He had openly challenged the Demon King, seated on his throne, to a battle, fair and square. The current situation was the outcome of the truly short minutes that followed after that.

Lion, paralyzed with fear, abruptly remembered his duties.

If a certain length of time passes for the soul to leave the body, revival becomes impossible. A black mage, with blood flowing from an injury on his forehead, was glaring at Lion as if he wanted to shoot him dead.

I get it, I get it, I won’t forget my duties!

Then, the reception hall, no, the castle itself, trembled, and an inhuman voice echoed.

“Let’s make a deal, human. If you stay in this castle, I will let the rest of the humans live. What do you say?”

!?

Could that voice be… the Demon King’s?

He had no idea what the Demon King was thinking, but there was no way that he would take him up on that offer.

It was said that the Northern Demon King had a taste for human blood and flesh. He was cruel and had slaughtered many parties of heroes. Even a kid from the countryside knew that much.

Lion didn’t answer the Demon King’s question. He had already finished the preparations necessary to summon a beast, performing a series of hand seals.

Phoenix, come forth!

The ball of light that appeared in front of Lion rapidly expanded, and the moment it split, a huge flaming bird appeared. He had gorgeous, long tail feathers and his scarlet wings emitted so much light that it burned one’s eyes.

The summoning beast that took on the shape of the flaming bird was gently flying around above the fallen Hero, and the Hero was enveloped in light.

“Oh?”

Letting out an impressed sigh, the Demon King gave them an opportunity to escape for the first time. Not letting that opportunity slip them by, throwing up blood as he spoke, the Necromancer recited the ‘Escape’2 spell.

**********

“Lion, thank you for saving me. But… I must apologize.”

“Ah, there’s no need… I’m sorry for not being able to do more.”

Telling him ‘I must apologize’ was nothing but a roundabout way of dismissing him. He was indirectly telling him: ‘You can’t work for us anymore, and we want you to leave the party.’ Lion bowed deeply.

The Hero Ryan, who had been revived thanks to the powers of Lion’s summoned beast, frowned apologetically.

“Tsk.” The black mage, leaning against the room’s wall, clicked his tongue, making sure Lion could hear him.

“Honestly! Do you really think that during a battle you can get away not only summoning just once, but also just one form? It’s true that, up until now, you have been getting by summoning just one beast. But, while we were getting killed, you hid in the shadows! What the hell were you doing!?” The black mage stated in annoyance. The kind-hearted Hero scolded him.

“Hey, he saved my life! Do you have to put it like that?”

I told you about this clearly when I was introducing myself…haven’t you just forgotten? Well, it’s not really something that common.

I didn’t summon any other beasts since you told me to prepare to summon the phoenix for the confrontation with the Demon King.

While, usually, summoners were able to summon several beasts all at once, Lion himself wasn’t able to do that.

It was true that he had been just standing by motionless, because he was ready to revive someone if they became unable to battle. Therefore, he didn’t have anything he could retort back with. Without saying anything, the party of heroes took their luggage and left the meeting room.

In order to attack the Demon King, a lot of heroes would team up together and form parties, challenging him to a fight.

‘Hero’ was a title obtained after defeating a lot of demons, so, even in Nord Kingdom, there were several dozen.

Lion had been employed by this one’s party as a summoner three months ago. They ran and returned from the Northern Demon King’s castle a week prior, and, today, Lion got fired.

“Bah. Guess I’m back to looking for work…”

Since his surroundings were slowly turning dark and he was worried about travel expenses, he headed directly towards the taverns located in the centre of the town. All recruitment information was available at the bigger taverns, so they were ideal for job hunting.

There were several taverns crowded together in the centre of the town. If their signboard had a sword and shield mark on it, it was an indication that they dealt with all kinds of adventuring work.

After checking for the mark, Lion opened the door to a relatively large tavern. A surge of heat, strong enough to be stifling, rushed at him from inside the tavern, together with the delicious scent of cooking meat and the friendly voices of people chatting.

He went straight to the counter, and greeted the plump proprietress.

“Good evening. Could I get some honey wine and your house’s specialty, please? I would also like to know if there are any recruitments to join a party.”

“Sure thing! The big sausage with our special spice kneaded into it is a popular dish here. As for commissions, try asking that man sitting over there.”

The man looked to be in his fifties and he was sitting alone, deep inside the tavern, tilting up a cup filled to the brim with honey wine. He looked like he was enjoying his drink quite a bit.

“Good evening. Are there any party recruitments available?”

“Hm? Aah, are you job hunting? Then, first of all, introduce yourself and tell me about your occupation and your skills.”

The informant, with his nose already red, took out a thick notebook out of a file basket. It was densely filled in with details about commissioned work.

“I’m Lion Shray, human, 25 years old, male. I’m from the southern Mauser kingdom. I’m a summoner. I can summon four rare summoning beasts: Phoenix, Pegasus, Leviathan and Thunder.

“Are there any good job offers around this area? I’m fine with joining a demon subduing party, or an adventurer party as well.”

“Huh, a freelance summoner! And four rare forms? You’re amazing! You must be in great demand everywhere with qualifications like these!”

“No, um… I can only summon one form once a day, so I’m actually pretty limited…”

It was quite painful, having to repeat the same thing that he got criticized for earlier that day.

When it came to summoning powers, hereditary genes played a big role, and there weren’t a lot of summoners to begin with. For that reason, almost every summoner family was working for the government. Most freelancing summoners were either travelling to gain skills or they were the black sheep of their family. Lion was the latter.

“Huh, just one form? Summoners like that exist? Ah, but almost all subduing commissions got withdrawn, so there aren’t any good ones at the moment.”

“How come?”

“You probably heard how, a week ago, Hero Ryan’s party returned after being defeated by the Northern Demon King, right?”

“Ah, yeah…”

Of course he knew about it. He had been a member of that party.

“After that, rumours have spread that the Northern Demon King might have died somehow. The demons are agitated, and, apparently, even the forest beasts have begun to act out. I’ve heard that a few days ago, the Northern Demon King’s magic suddenly disappeared, and the northern castle was buzzing with the energy of other demons, causing the Shinto priests to panic.”

“The Northern Demon King is dead?! Who could possibly have killed him?!”

“It couldn’t have been a Hero party. After Hero Ryan’s battle, there wouldn’t be anyone who dared to challenge him.”

On this continent there were four Demon Kings, also known as Unifiers, each residing in one of the four directions: north, west, south and east. Since the Southern Demon King had been slain by a Hero about a hundred years ago, currently there were only three Demon Kings.

Among those, the one who prided himself on being the longest reigning one was the Northern Demon King. For a long period of time, he was at the top of the hierarchy of the northern demons. Moreover, he had never suffered any defeats against any Hero party, which showed this Demon King’s prowess.

That Demon King was dead?

If the Northern Demon King’s castle was full of other demons’ energy, he must have been attacked by his own demon subordinates.

Lion remembered the shadow of the Northern Demon King, back when they faced him a week earlier, and how he had held so much power that it didn’t feel like he could even belong to this world. Could there even be a demon that could overcome that power? He thought.

“Since the Demon King was slain, the demons have been going on a rampage and causing disasters. I don’t know exactly what happened, but the commissioners, upon seeing the situation, have withdrawn their recruitments for the time being.”

“I see…”

They were probably anticipating that the countries neighboring the Northern Demon King’s territory would be in disarray for a while.

After Lion gave the informant a copper coin as thanks and sat down in a nearby chair, a young girl, dressed in the shop’s workers’ clothes, brought him the honey wine and his meal as if she had been just waiting for it.

As he was eating the juicy sausage he tried to think of what he should do now.

To think that the Northern Demon King would get killed by his own people…

I had planned on staying in this country for a while, but since there’s no jobs, I have no choice. Should I head east…?

Lion was a wandering summoner.

Since summoning powers were mainly determined by heritage, there were a lot of people who worked for their country of origin alongside their whole family.

Since summoners were uncommon like this, there weren’t a lot of them, and they were usually appointed important posts in the country.

Lion, whose summoning capacity was greatly restricted, was labelled as a failure, and he felt out of place among his talented relatives.

Both his body and mind were exhausted by this uncomfortable way of life that felt like he was lying on a bed of nails. So, three years ago, when he was 22, he left Mauser kingdom and joined various parties as he wandered around all of the different countries.

There were a lot of times when he had been warmly welcomed and accepted by a party because he was an uncommon freelancing summoner. However, just like the other day, he would eventually get told that he was surprisingly useless and his contract would be severed.

I’m already used to it, though.

Lion finished his simple meal and left the tavern.

He knew that there was a cheap hotel nearby, so he decided to stay the night there.

And, the day after, he would leave this country.

Thank you for reading!

Footnotes

リオン in the original, the Li is pronounced like in ‘limb’ and on like in ‘onset’

I am using the term that was written in furigana above the kanji by the author. The meaning of the word itself means: to retire from the front, to desert.